Apparatus for printing on roll-paper.



v A. E. PALMER;

APPARATUS FOR PRINTING ON ROLL PAPER. APPLIOATIPN FIL ED DEC. 4, 190-2.

PATENTED OCT. 20, 1903.

2 SHEETS-SHEET. 1.

No. 741,706. PATENTED OCT. 20, 1903.

A. E. PALMER.

APPARATUS FOR PRINTING ON ROLL PAPER.

APPLIOATION FILED DEG. 4. 1902.

fig 14013621.. v 2 SHEETS-SHEET '2. I I Q I No. 749L706.

UNITED STATES Patented October 20, 1903.

PATENT OFFICE.

ALFRED E. PALMER, or s N FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, Asslenon, BY

- DIRECT ANDMESNEJ ASSIGNMENTS, TO HARRY E..LAMAR,OF OAK- LAND, CALIFORNIA. AND MANU E. RAFAEL, or SAN FRANCISCO,

\ oALIFoRNIA.

APPARATUS reassi n-mu e N ROLL-lAPEFl.

'fSPEC I FIGA TIOIiT fOrming part of Letters latent Iii o. 741,706, dated October 20, 1903.

Application filed December 1, 1902. Serial No. 133 877. (No model.) i

To. all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Arman PA ME a u j t of he Ki g of Great Bri aiaen a resident of the city and county of San Francisco and State of California, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in'Apparatns for Printing on Roll-Paper, ofwhich the following is a specification. i

This invention relates to improvements made in printing devices or apparatus. that are specially devised for printing businesscards and advertising matter directly on a roll of wrapping-paper and are operated by the rotation of the roll on its upportin -trams as the paper is drawn from the roll. Devices 1 of this character in which the type'carrying' roller runs in contactwith the r ll of paper,

making the impression directly upon the outer layer of the roll, are found to produce faint and uneven impressions on account of depressions and irregularities in the peripheral face of the roll and its variation from the shape of a trueoylinder, and in practice these i I defects in the operation, particularlyin printpointed o t ope-oi iii ing on rolls of the larger sizes, haveto a greater or less extent placed limitations on the length and sizeof the printing-roller, as

well asthe number,quantity,and the arrange- 4 ment of the lines of type, while they also ren der uncertain the production of a clean and legible impression of the type on the paper as the "roll becomes reduced in size.

The present improvements have for their object toovercome'these defects and to produce a mechanism that will give a sharp and even impression on the paper under all changes in the size of the roll, unaffected by depressions or irregularities in the peripheral surface that cause it to vary from a true eye lindrical form, also to enable these results to; A) be attained on paper-rolls. of all sizes and widths.

, To such ends and objects my present 'invention consists in certain novel parts and combination of parts and in the production of an improved paper'roH-printing device or attachment, as hereinafter described, and in the claims the end of ti'lill paper-rolls of this description.

eral parts.

Figure l-of the drawings representsin perspective a. frame and printing device for paper-rolls embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical cross-section through the frame and the printing mechanism, the dotted lines indicating the dimensions of. the paper-roll at the time it is placed in the frame and when it has become reduced by being drawn off. Fig. 3 is a one-half frontelevation, taken from the left side of Fig. 2, with a portion, of one standard and the end of the roll-carrying spindle shown in section. view of the roll-carrying spindle withone of its movable heads in section. Fig. 5 is an end View of the spindle, taken from the left of Fig. at. Fig. 6 is a sectional view in detail of one of the spring-bearings of the printingroller.

. Fig. 4 is a detail near the bottom, form a stationary frame such as is commonly provided for carrying Open sockets eon the inner sides of the standards furnish bearings for the endsof a spindle f, that is inserted and fixed in the center of the paper- A roll, the ends of the spindle beingeasily set in and removed from the socket to place a fresh roll in the frame. Projecting from each standard a slotted arm g, preferably east integrally with the standard, extendsoutward and upward at an angle from the vertical, and the two arms being parallel and inclined at the same angle furnish a support and bearlugs for the rollers that constitute the printing mechanism. This part of the devicecomprises the typescarrying roll which I term the printin i.

roller t', placed between the and the paper-roll and hav ng somewhat elastic or yieldingsurface, which 31 call the impression-roller, and third a ler 7r, placed on the opposite 'side of the ;..-.'!'.ing-i'Ollel' that operates to-inl; the type on the face of the printing-roller. Bearings in the inner sides of the angular arms carry the journals of these three rollers,the bearings for the impression-roller being formed at the bottom of a recess or slot in each arm, but those forthe printingrroller being formed in slidable boxes m, upon each of which a coiled spring p, placed in the slot or recess above the box, is caused to bear with greater or less force by an adjustable screw-plug r, fitted to a threaded socket in the end of the arm. Any required degree of pressure between the printing-roller and the impressionroller below it is obtained by increasing or reducing the force of the coiled spring through the medium of the screw r. 1

Instead of being arranged to bear directly on the circumference of the paper-roll, and

thereby make the impression directly upon the outmost layer of the paper, it will be noticed in the present construction'and arrangement that the printing-roller is always out of contact with the roll and the printing-surface works incontact with the impressionroller. In this arrangement the web of paper 'as it is drawn off the roll and before it is separated by the cutter 6, usually provided in papenroll carriers of this kind, is passed from the lower-side of the paper-roll upward and betweenthe impression-roller and the printing-roller before it is brought to the front and passed under the cuttingblade t, and consequently as the web of paper is drawn off the roll it operates to rotate mechanically by frictional contact the two rollers before mentioned, and the impression is made on that portion of the paper with whichthe typecarrying portions of the printing-roller surface comes in contact while running between it and the impression-roller. In this operation the surface of the impression-roller,which is always substantially a true cylinder, is substituted for the variable and constantly changing surface of the paper-roll itself, with the efiect to insure at all times, regardless of thevarying changes taking place in the shape and diameter of the paper-roll, a sharp and even impression of the lines of type.

The printing-roller which I prefer to employ is the kind that has an inking-pad h on a portion of its surface and the printing-type h on the remaining portion. Rims or flanges h on the ends of the roller outside the print- 'the type, whereas at all other parts in the complete rotation of the printing-roller the flanges bear on the paper. The eflfect of this construction is to insure a clear impression of the first and the last lines or rows of type, because the difierence in the height of the type over the flange is not sufficient to produce an abrupt change or jump at the point of contact with the impression-roller, and a practically smooth rolling contactis insured. The inking-roller is carried by bearings in the arms g-above the printing-roller to run in contact with the inking-pad and over the type-surface in the usual manner.-

In apparatus of this description for printing on the web of wrapping-paper at the time it is drawn from the roll I have found that it is important to maintain an even'tension on the web of paper after it leaves the roll and hold it at all timesjtaut between the paperroll and the printing-roller in order both to have the web travel evenly through theimpression and printing rollers without running over one end or the other, and thereby insure a clean impression and uniform character of work under all the changes that in practice take place in the tension of the paper while it is being drawn off the roll, particularly with the widest and heaviest rolls, and the constant reduction in the size of the roll as the paper is drawn off for use. For that purpose I provide in the standard a and within the socket e a friction-brake consisting of a fiat spring w, secured at one end to the side of the standard at a point above the socket and having its unattached lower endstanding out from the back of the socket, so as to exert a constant pressure against the end of the spindlef when the latter is in the socket. A set-screw 2, with a milled head and with the screw-threaded shank turned off smoothly to form asquare end 3 of smaller diameter than the shank, is fitted to work in a threaded hole through the standard in line with the longitudinal axis of the spindle, as seen in Figs. 2 and 3. The spring to is slotted orprovided with an aperture 4: of smaller diameter than the threaded portion of the screw, so as to allow the reduced end to extend through the spring andset in a cavity in the end of the spindle. The screw thus forms a center for the spindle to turn on and furnishes also a means for holding the paperroll stationary when it is desired that paper should not be drawn therefrom by jamming the spring against the end of the spindle. brake of this character at each end of the spindle will place the heaviest and largest paper-roll under such control that the roll will turn at every pull on the web in drawing it off a sufficient amount or extent to supply the-desired length of paper and the roll will be each time arrested at the end of'the rotation. Any additional movement that otherwise would be produced by the inertia of the roll, and particularly in the case of a large and heavy roll, is therefore prevented by the action of the brakes on the roll, and that porreg,

IIO

tion of the web which is unrolled and extends largest rolls which the apparatus is capable of handling, it will be found-of advantage sometimes to apply a brake to the periphery of the roll just below the point where the outermost layer of the web separates from the next layer and runs over the impressionroller. This brake 5 is best formed of a piece of stiff wire bent to a rectangular shape to form the straight bar 5 and the side arms 5 and the ends of the arms bent to form an eye 5, fitting loosely on the tie-rod d andattached to the arm 5 to hold the brake-arm against the surface of the paper-roll with constant pressure under all variations in the diameter of the roll due to the consumption of the paper.

In order to insure the proper centering of the rolls in the frame, I have provided an adjustable spindle applicable to rolls of all sizes and capable of being tightly fitted in the roll for the time being, so.that the roll .and the spindle shall always turn together without liability of the paper turning on the spindle. The construction of this spindle will be understood from Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings. The body of the spindle is a cylindrical rod f, with a recess 7 in each end for the center screw 2, and on each end is fitted a conical head 8, having its base or greatest diameter placed outward. These heads being fitted to slide longitudinally on the rod, they can be set toward or away from each other a greater or less distance, according to the width of the roll that is to be given on the spindle, and by virtue of the conical shape of the heads they act as wedges when forced into the center of the roll from opposite ends, and thus fix and hold the roll tightly on the spindle. Each conical head is held in position on the spindle by a spring-tongue 9, that is let into a groove 10 in the ci'rc'umference'of the rod and lengthwise of it and is arranged to set into a longitudinal slot or re cess in the head, as seen in Figs. 3, 4, and 5, These springs lock the heads on thespindle,'so that they always will 'turn together, and also serve to keep'theheads.

in position against longitudinal movement. Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new therein, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a roll-paper-printing device, a supporting-frame, parallel slotted arms projecting from said frame and having tubular upper ends, an impression-roller journaled in hearings in the slots of said arms, a printing roller also journaled in bearings in said slots,

spiral springs located in the hollow portions of the arms and pressing against the bearings of the printing-roller, and means for adjusting the tension of said springs.

'2. In a roll-paper-printing device, a supporting-frame, slotted arms projecting from said frame and having hollow tubular upper ends provided with arednced internalsthread ed portion, an impression-roller journaled in bearings in said slots, a printing-roller also journaled' in bearings in said slots, spiral springs located in the hollow ends of the arms and pressing against the bearings of the printing-roller, and-adjusting-screws in the reduced portions of said hollow ends bearing against thespiral springs.

3. In a paper-roll apparatus,- the combination'with a paper-roll to be supported, of a frame having sockets for the axle of the roll to turn on, and an adjustable spindle applicable to paper-rolls of different widths, comprising a rod and conical heads longitudinally movable thereon and adapted to clamp the roll between them and fix it on the rod, and means for locking the heads on the spindle.

4. In a paper-roll apparatus, the combination with the supporting-frame, of an adjustable spindle journaled therein comprising a rod provided with longitudinal grooves ,bandsprings located in said grooves, and conical heads longitudinally movable on said rod and provided with internal longitudinal grooves adapted to receive said band -springs, where-' by the heads are held against rotation upon the rod. I

5. In a paper-roll apparatus, the combination with the supporting-frame and a spindle ALFRED E. PALMER.

Witnesses:

EDWARD E. OSBORN, HARRY J.'LAsK. 

